“The most important job of any leader is to bring hope,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told an enthusiastic crowd (even if it was somewhat depleted, nearing the end of his marathon speech) at the party’s convention on Friday.
But is it really?
Unlike many other declarations made in that speech, this particular statement is a little tricky to fact-check, because it’s not exactly black and white. But I’m going with: no. A leader has many important jobs. Bringing hope – in particular, false hope, or hope that only applies to certain people – should not be job No. 1.
Creating the circumstances around which hope can be justified: Now that’s a worthy aspiration for our leaders. They should lay out policies that can logically lead to hopes being satisfied, and not just paint a picture of what they think that might look like.
And Mr. Poilievre’s was a strange picture, at that.
Employing Leave It to Beaver-esque imagery, Mr. Poilievre conjured the Canada he apparently finds ideal, and hopes voters do too: couples on the front porches of homes they worked hard to acquire, kids playing one last round of street hockey before going to bed without argument, a Canadian flag in the front yard, shopkeepers sweeping storefronts and waving to seniors driving by. How are you doing today, Mrs. Cleaver?
That couple on the front porch with the flag has a cold drink in one hand, a paycheque in the other: “They look into each other’s eyes in a way that can only say, ‘The hard work paid off. The sacrifices were worth it. Because finally we’re home.’ ”
What sort of retro vision of Canada is this? Who wrote this nonsense version of Make Canada Great Again?
Our paycheques are direct-deposited now, Mr. Poilievre! And unfortunately, that Canadian flag has been sullied by your pals in that convoy that occupied Ottawa for weeks last year.
Or was that your point?
“With the Prime Minister working so hard to erase our memories,” Mr. Poilievre stated, “it’s easy to forget how good life was and how good it can be.” But for whom was life so good?
Canada’s ideal future cannot be about going back to some idyllic pastoral suburban dream that Mr. Poilievre’s speechwriters have conjured from selective memory, and that can no longer logically exist. The future we need a leader to be thinking about is one where we can all move forward to a more sustainable, inclusive and, yes, affordable society.
And red herrings like suggesting Justin Trudeau is “working so hard” to erase good memories are just insulting to Canadians’ intelligence. Or referring to “the hell” Mr. Trudeau has caused to people’s lives. Or stating that before Mr. Trudeau came to power, Canada was rich, affordable and safe. Anyone with half a molecule of critical-thinking skills can tear those statements apart.
Further, the good old days weren’t so good for everyone. A lot of people – women, LGBTQ folks, people we called visible minorities – were barred from this selective version of a picture-perfect Canada that Mr. Poilievre thrilled his audience with. When he wrapped it up by declaring “these are our people; this is our country,” to whom was he referring? To whom does he believe this country belongs?
Over and over, Mr. Poilievre promised common sense. Some of us are old enough to remember Mike Harris’s Common Sense Revolution, and to remember that it wasn’t so great for a lot of Ontarians. Just ask the people of Walkerton, Ont., about their water. Or the public-sector workers whose jobs or salaries were cut. Or the people struggling on social assistance who were told to budget with a “welfare diet,” with helpful suggestions such as haggling with shopkeepers over the price of dented cans of tuna.
“Hope is what Canadians need now more than ever,” Mr. Poilievre said. But hope without reason is folly. Further, our hopes need to be tailored to the reality around us: climate change, population growth, the need for density, and a radically changing employment landscape. We need to be thinking about moving forward, not back to a lost time when certain people could afford single-family homes on cul-de-sacs or other streets quiet enough to safely host their kids’ sport of choice.
This false nostalgia is not productive. We are not all owed a house with a front porch when our country is burning and housing is scarce. And to pin that on Justin Trudeau alone is simplistic and dishonest. Mr. Poilievre is smart enough to know that. Let’s hope Canadian voters will be, too.